Over 90 percent of teen crashes happen in the first few months of receiving a driver license.

Per mile driven, drivers ages 16-19 are nearly three times more likely to be in a fatal crash than drivers ages 20 and older.

The good news: Involved parents who set rules and monitor their teen’s driving behavior in a supportive way can cut their teen’s crash risk in half. In fact, according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute, teens whose parents are involved in their driving and training are:

To encourage increased parent involvement, Zero Fatalities partners with high school driver education programs to host Parent Nights. A Parent Night is a one hour evening presentation for driver ed students and their parents, where attendance is mandatory for both student and guardian. As you can imagine, some parents come grumbling, upset at having to sit in the school auditorium for an hour. However, they sing a different tune when they leave. Recently we received the following feedback from a grateful mother:

“I was at your Zero Fatalities presentation last night at Syracuse High with my daughter and I wanted to say thanks… and tell you what an impact your presentation had on me personally. I can admit I wasn’t looking forward to coming but I’m so grateful I did. I tend to not wear my seat belt and am often distracted in the car. This presentation, particularly the videos and stories you shared, were such an eye-opener for me. Aside from what I personally took away from the evening, as a mom who’s daughter is about to get her license (which scares me)… I’m grateful that you guys take the time to show this to our young kids, to drive home how serious driving is, or ought to be.”

Safe driving requires the effort of everyone on the road. During a Parent Night, presenters review valuable information on Graduated Driver’s License Laws and essential safe driving behavior. Zero Fatalities professional presenters layer in stories, video and statistics to empower parent and teen alike to become better drivers. The goal is to reach zero fatalities on our roadways.

The Parent Night presentation is free and Zero Fatalities is eager to be in every high school in Utah. If you have never attended a parent night, contact your school and request they call Zero Fatalities. For more teen safety information, visit dontdrivestupid.com or zerofatalities.com.

***Sonia Shearer is a guest blogger for us this month because who better to explain our corporate wellness program than the corporate trainer herself!***

If you are interested in taking care of your employees’ mental, physical and emotional health, so they work more efficiently and use less sick time, you may want to consider adding some corporate wellness coaching options to your employee perks. Worksite health promotion and wellness is one of the most viable and cost effective ways to combat many of the ailments and stressors that are to blame for poor health and lost productivity for those who spend one quarter of their lives at work.

Overall satisfaction – Employees at businesses with wellness programs consistently report that they’re working harder, performing better and are motivated to stay with the company.

What is your ROI? Numerous studies have found a positive return on investment for employers instituting wellness programs, anywhere from $1.00 to $13.00 gained (in improved productivity and reduced insurance costs) for every $1.00 spent.

The Los Angeles Times reports, “According to a study by The Human Resource Management Company, the report shows a significant jump from 2014 to 2015 in several different wellness benefits, such as fitness competitions — which 34% of respondents now say they offer. It shows that organizations are taking wellness to the next level,” said Evran Esen. In addition to showing the increased focus on wellness plans, the data revealed other broader trends. The survey examined the prevalence of more than 300 benefits including a few of the following:

Dental insurance (offered by 96% of respondents)

401(k) plans (90%)

On-site Massage Therapy (11%)

Prepared take-home meals (1%)

At Penna Powers, we take our employees’ health seriously. We have implemented a corporate wellness coaching program with Velocity WoRx. After a company-wide survey, a program was put together that included the areas that the employees wanted to focus on. A weight and body fat consultation began the corporate wellness coaching to further assess where the employees were personally. A ‘P2 – 12 Week Corporate Wellness Challenge’ began in July and the participation has been phenomenal. From ‘Lunch and Learns’, to Active Week, Water World Week, Take Your Meetings on a Walk Week, Portion Control Week and Macro-What (macro-nutrients), are just a few of the weekly challenges that have taken place. Employees have been encouraged to check in with Sonia, their corporate wellness coach, in the most creative way possible for a chance to win cash. Another challenge was put to the employees to check in the most with Sonia during an active week for another chance at cash. The response to these challenges has been fantastic and it has gotten the Penna Powers employees motivated to do better each week. A little friendly competition has sweetened the pot for some. Penna Powers has won the “Utah Business Best Companies to Work For” award in 2009, 2013 and 2014 and are sure to win it again with the addition of corporate wellness coaching this year, because our employees are happier, healthier and more productive.

Last month, new carpet was installed in my office space. So there I was, kicked out for two weeks, left to wander the hallways with no place to call my own. My boss, seeing me in despair, was kind enough to let me join her in her office. The fact that she was willing to let me encroach on her space for an undetermined amount of time, made me feel pretty great about myself. I was excited, it felt like I was about to have a non-stop slumber party at work. Snacks, gossip, braiding each other’s hair, maybe someone would start crying and have to go home… you know, the usual.

While my experience was not quite that exciting, there were definitely some great things that came from sharing an office with my boss for two weeks. And of course there were some cons, but it got me thinking, maybe all the hate on open office concepts is wrong. Is it possible that sharing a work space really could be more productive? Here is what I found from my experience:

PROS:

Constant Convenience
I cannot say enough about how awesome it was to have my boss constantly within earshot. Because we work on a lot of the same projects, I often have a laundry list of quick questions that I need to ask her in order to move forward. Usually this means I have to write down the questions and then creep around her office until an opportunity to pounce presents itself. But sharing a work space, allowed us both to toss out quick questions and get immediate answers, making it easier to keep things moving.

Getting to Know Each Other
Obviously, being in close quarters for an extended period of time allows you to really get to know someone. This was a great opportunity to learn more about the way she works and for both of us to just get to know each other. Having a friend in your co-worker or boss makes coming to work a lot more fun.

Job Shadowing
Working so closely with someone gives you the opportunity to see the ins and outs of what their job is like. I learned a lot about the role of an Advertising Director, which was especially beneficial for me. But understanding someone else’s job could be beneficial even if you are not in the same department.

CONS:

Constant Convenience
Although it is great to have a constant open floor for project discussion, being so close is also very distracting. If you are in the middle of one project and keep getting interrupted by questions about other projects, it can make it difficult to stay on task. Plus when you get along with the people around you, you have to work extra hard not to get off topic.

No PrivacyNot having any privacy at work sucks. Especially at the Director level, you need privacy to make important client or employee related calls. Being in my boss’ office meant she had to leave to make those calls. And honestly, making any phone call or even talking to someone else about a project can be very distracting for the person sharing your work space. And can you imagine how difficult it would be to have no privacy if we really didn’t like each other? That would have been two of the most awkward weeks of my live.

Overall I had a great experience sharing an office space, but it is nice for both of us to have some privacy back. Have you ever worked in a open office? What did you think of your experience? Let us know in the comments below.

Are you creating a company blog team and don’t know where to start? Watch our video to find five key steps to get your company up and blogging in no time, including:

1. Select a team lead and get volunteers from all departments.
2. Choose a strategy – SEO, show company culture or prospecting new clients.
3. Have regular meetings to discuss statistics, plan and generate new ideas.
4. Set up quality control to check grammar, site staging and to ensure the content is on strategy.

It’s important to remember to always keep your blog on strategy, as your website/blog is one of the most important members of your organization. Need help starting a blog? We’d love to assist.

Advertising agency internships are tough to get. Whether it’s an account management internship, designer internship or public relations internship, there will always be more applicants than openings.

One important note – there’s a reason why there’s a surplus of applications. Ad agencies are fun places to work, fast-paced and generally cater to younger folks already. There are big budgets and the work is high-profile. What that means is the people who work in advertising are stretched thin and generally have less structured internship programs than large brands. An advertising internship will be one of the most fun jobs you’ll have but you’ll have to really stand out.

Here’s a list of four unique ways to land a coveted internship at an ad agency.

Agency Tour

Most ad agencies won’t even post their internships online. They ask professors for their best students or have someone’s second cousin’s niece lined up. Call up an agency you want to work for and ask to talk to a manager/director of the department you’re interested in working for. Tell them you’d be interested in a quick tour. Bring your resume along, ask good questions throughout the tour and ask them if they’d like an intern. You’ll be blown away with how many say yes and you’ll likely be the only one to interview for the position.

Send a Pie

If you want your resume to stand out, instead of submitting it via email, send it along with an item of food. I recommend pie, because everyone loves pie, but you could also try a pizza, fruit basket or doughnuts.

I once interviewed for a position and instead of sending a thank you note, I sent a pie with a note that said “It’d be a real treat to work with you.” I got the job offer the next day. Once again, everyone loves pie.

Edgy Cover Letter

Remember that real people are reading your cover letter. They, like you, want to learn something, be entertained or just see something different once in a while. Ditch the standard cover letter format and remember you’re applying for a job at an advertising agency. It’s a fun place, so make your cover letter appeal to these fun people. One of my favorite examples is this brutally honest cover letter.

I received a portfolio recently that had the applicant’s zombie plan. It was, “There are only two kinds of people in this world. Those who have a zombie plan and those who don’t. I like to refer to the second group as dinner. Of course I have a zombie plan.”

Know the Different Departments

Odds are you are not both a designer and a media buyer. They are both very different jobs, and even if there’s an opening for both at an agency you shouldn’t use your same resume for both. Here’s a rundown of what jobs fit in to which department:

Creative – designer, copywriter, videographer

Production – trafficking

Digital – web developer, web designer, user experience

Account Management – account coordinator, account manager

Media – media planner/buyer

Public Relations – PR professional, social media

Administrative – HR, finance, billing, administrative assistant, IT

In my experience, there are less internship applications for production and media, as those are the lesser-known departments discussed in school. A production job requires high attention to detail and gets to work with everyone in the agency (although is not client-facing). A media job is very data-driven and works with many media vendors. To learn more about media you can read what a media planner does.

Understanding the different departments is helpful when you’re crafting your resume or setting up a tour (first recommendation in this article).

Overall these four tips will set you up for success as you start to apply for internships. If you’re looking for an internship in Salt Lake City or Las Vegas, please send us a pie!

A whole lot of fun has joined the Penna Powers family as of late; let us introduce you to some of our newest employees. Katherine, Jordan and Calvin are the coolest of the bunch having all graduated from the University of Utah, while Collin just finished up at BYU (shakes head). Collin & Melinda are a part of our Zero Fatalities team while Anthony and Patty hang out in our Nevada office, having all the fun. And you can find Jordan lurking in the basement or sneaking off to TV shoots. We are so happy to have all these newbies in our ranks; here is a little more information about them.

When Collin isn’t surfing in Hawaii or honeymooning in Mexico you can find him hanging out in the girls’ corner working on Zero Fatalities outreach. He can tell you every reason to wear a seat belt and give you a personal story about how important proper sunscreen use is. If he were stranded on a desert island, the food he would miss the most is a pot roast dinner featuring mashed potatoes, gravy and veggies that could be washed down with a tall glass of water full of pebble ice.

Katherine stays busy trying to keep her cat lady roommates’ ‘children’ out of her room and getting duped into long hikes. While hailing from Washington, she has lived in the Beehive state for the last 8 years and has no plans to leave. She enjoys traveling, wine, (especially traveling to wineries) 😉 and game nights-although is not always the most gracious loser.

Calvin came to us from Comcast, where he interned during school and for some time after graduation. He dreams of visiting Tibet, cheers for the Oregon Ducks (he is obviously deranged) and terrorizes cube-mates Katherine and Jennifer with his creepy stuffed llama and airborne crumpled up paper.

Melinda is our star athlete, who also enjoys camping and playing in the mountains. She has been a little injury prone as of late, but is a trooper – tackling the stairs up to her office day in and day out. If she could have any car in the world, she would choose an old white Volkswagen Vanagon camper. One of her favorite movie quotes is, “The things you own end up owning you” from Fight Club.

Patty recently returned to Las Vegas and joined the Penna Powers team as a Senior Account Manager. Her favorite jingle is the Band-Aid song: I am stuck on Band-Aid…. ‘cause Band-Aids stuck on me’. Her musical taste is impeccable with her first concert being Journey and her most recent Jackson Browne.

Anthony is our intern turned PI coordinator in Nevada who would like to meet Arnold Schwarzenegger more than anyone else in the world. His first concert was Barney & the Backyard Gang – don’t hate, we probably all watched it and he loves Chimichangas.

Fellow Ute, Jordan is our new videographer. A favorite quote of his is from Walt Disney, “Keep moving forward.” And based on his favorite place to travel (Switzerland), I bet his favorite ride at Disneyland would be the Matterhorn. When Jordan isn’t filming or editing, he enjoys playing soccer with his family. Also, his daughters are adorable.

Now that you’ve seen how cool the newest members of the Penna Powers family are, go check out our open positions in the Career section to possibly join yourself!

While the Penna Powers blog is great for keeping you up-to-date on what’s happening in the advertising world, we can’t cover every topic all of the time. When you’re looking for another place to glean some news, why not check out these marketing blogs.

FFFFOUND! is a fun little blog that features interesting and unique images to inspire creative and innovative thinking. Viewers can also register their own username and like or share their favorite posts and images from across the web.

This blog seeks to expose the copy cats. Each post consists of two ads. One original ad and another that is eerily similar to it. The blog lets you decide if the accused ad is a copy cat or just a coincidence.

In today’s changing marketing landscape, good writing is becoming increasingly difficult to find, and increasingly valuable. Copyblogger is a great resource for any marketer looking to up their wordsmith game (and some other marketing tips thrown in too).

Did I mention that the world of marketing was in constant flux? There are few places as well equipped to track existing trends as Global Web Index. With metrics, charts and posts that detail what’s to come and what’s happening now, Global Web Index can help you plan for the future.

And of course, even more than these four websites, you’ll want to keep reading our blog at Penna Powers for up-to-date information on everything from advertising to marketing and more.

One year ago Instagram introduced native advertising in the United States utilizing promoted photos and videos from major brands introducing a new multibillion dollar advertising business. Thus far ads have been creative and engaging emphasizing audience storytelling. The advertising program has seen an increase in brand awareness, cross platform lift and traffic for many of its early partners, particularly the retail companies involved in the program. Due to its success, Instagram is opening up its application program interface (API) for advertising in the middle of August to marketers and then general advertisers in Q4 of 2015.

Instagram Facts:

300 million users worldwide

60% 18-24 usage

70 million photos per day

5 billion likes per day

Instagram will launch multiple advertising products resembling similar offerings from parent company Facebook. The carousel ads on Instagram will bring multi-page print campaigns to mobile devices with the added benefit of taking the audience to a website to learn more. Overtime campaigns will mirror the same objective based goals Facebook campaigns offer. All Instagram ads will have a special tag in the top right that says Sponsored. The image below from Instagram shows a mock-up of the carousel’s layout and storytelling ability.

In addition to carousel ads, photo ads will be launching and giving brands the opportunity to reach a passionate and engaged audience by delivering messages in a focused, creative format. Sponsored photos will measure reach; brand awareness and ad recall appearing natively in the user’s feed.

Companies can tie together Instagram Ads with Facebook campaigns to increase cross platform measurements effectively increasing engagement, website traffic and conversion opportunities. Audience targeting will leverage the same tools as Facebook advertising providing Instagram with a leg up over other social media ad products. Analytics and reporting will also appear along side the Facebook dashboard with delivery and measurements including:

Impressions

Reach and frequency

Demographics

Brand metrics

Ad recall

Message awareness

Unique to Instagram will be the ability to measure ad recall and brand awareness by leveraging Nielsen technology. Instagram’s goal is to grab the user’s attention with concept driven creative that is relevant and tasteful. Initial beta testing partners were buying on a CPM basis with businesses with large-scale budgets seeing a CPM of $20. Instagram informed Penna Powers CPMs would come in at $13 when advertising opens in mid-August. Estimated CPCs have not been discussed yet but will be available as more objective based campaigns come online.

Though many other social media channels offer similar promotion tactics, Instagram holds the only claim to be able to utilize Facebook’s powerful targeting capabilities. This means that companies can reach their target audience at a much lower cost across two of the largest social media channels in the United States and world. First and foremost, the average Instagram user is looking to engage with their day-to-day brands. Thus, sponsored posts will likely increase brand awareness, engagements and purchase interest for your products.

As marketers we are on a constant hunt for new tools to leverage in the battle for consumer eyeballs with more and more budgets shifting to social media. Instagram’s popularity continues to grow reaching 300 million users in 2015, a majority of them being millennials. This growth shows no evidence of stopping in the near future. By launching sponsored campaigns on Instagram brands will rewarded and recognized as early innovators. At the end of the day Instagram’s engagement rate dwarfs Twitter’s engagement signaling to marketers of all sizes that shifting their dollars to Instagram is a smart bet.

Flash banner ads will be disappearing soon. As of September 1, 2015 Flash ads in the Google Chrome browser will no longer have automatic animation and will become click-to-play. This is the first domino to fall and many other browsers are following suit. In fact, Firefox is working on a similar project.

This has large implications for marketers. Currently Chrome accounts for 48% of all web traffic. Here is the breakdown of web traffic by browser:

What this means for marketers is they will need to rebuild their Flash ads into HTML5 ads. This will ensure their ads can run across all browsers without problems. If you need help in this transition, please feel free to contact us today.

Need an easy way to collect and share data?… Google Drive can help with that, and it’s FREE. Whether you poll coworkers on their tech needs, or provide a client with a tool to promote an important message, Google surveys can be used on various levels and I promise you don’t have to be a computer whiz to succeed.

Still not catching the vision? Let me give a few more scenarios where a quick and easy Google form could make a world of difference:

Before a partnering meeting with local community leaders you sent attendees a Google survey asking what they expect to learn or accomplish.

After a training session, you send out a Google survey asking attendees what they learned, what they liked and how it could have been better.

In preparation to speak at an upcoming conference, you send a Google survey to trusted colleagues asking for advice on the requested topic.

Just for fun, you send a Google survey to employees, quizzing them on random pop culture and provide the winners with goofy prizes.

Each Christmas you can never remember or guess what your spouse or kids want, so you send out a Google survey.

Send a Google form to determine prior knowledge before a staff meeting.

There are hundreds of uses, and if you google “how to use a google form,” you’ll be shocked at all you find. Below is a Google survey the Utah Department of Transportation and the Utah Department of Public Safety’s program, Zero Fatalities, provided to partners in order to help promote seat belt use in Utah. Give it a read, as it goes step by step through the creation of a Google Form.

*Note: ANYONE can use the following information to create a seat belt pledge, so feel free to copy and paste.

Seat Belt Pledge Google Form

Get your employees/community to pledge to always buckle up, and help those they travel with do the same. Listed below are the steps and information needed to create a Google form seat belt pledge. To view an example of this pledge visit: http://goo.gl/forms/rEmKjOKZ5Q.

5. In the description, beneath the title, feel free to copy and paste the following information:

Until we have perfect people, even the safest drivers are vulnerable to the poor decisions of others. We may not be able to engineer around stupid, but you can protect yourself from those who are. The single most important thing you can do to prevent death or injury on the road: Buckle up.

If you don’t buckle up, please reconsider. If you do buckle up, have a conversation with the people you care about; help them understand that buckling up doesn’t mean, “giving in to The Man” – it means choosing to live, choosing to be around for weddings, birthdays, vacations, promotions and grandchildren. If you truly care about the people around you, you will advocate for seat belt use everywhere you drive, every time. Seventeen percent of our population drives unbuckled and contributes to nearly HALF of our roadway fatalities. These non-seatbelt users comprise of fathers/mothers, brothers/sisters, friends and grandparents. A primary seat belt law is a BIG step in the right direction, but no one will get an unbuckled someone to buckle up better than those they love.

If you know someone who drives unbuckled please help them understand the facts.

Three out of four people ejected from their vehicle die from their injuries.

Wearing a seat belt keeps the driver in the driver seat, significantly helping the driver maintain control of the vehicle.

Unbuckled passengers increase the risk of killing or injuring other belted passengers by 40 percent.

But most importantly, help them understand they should buckle up because you love and care for them.

For more information, visit zerofatalities.com and the Zero Fatalities Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.

6. Then add question number one:

a. Copy question: Do you pledge to always buckle up?

b. Make sure you check the box at the end that says “required question”

7. Click on “Add Item” to add the second question:

a. Copy question:

i. When you travel, do you pledge to make sure everyone in the vehicle buckles up?

Like most Google Docs, the Google Form is made to be comprehensive and easy for any one. However, just Google “How to create a Google Form” and you’ll soon realize there’s much more you can learn than the basics. So start here and enjoy.

We’ll take any chance we get to pit the Cougars versus the Utes in a friendly office competition. Utah Food Bank’s Summer Food and Fund Drive gave us the perfect excuse to see what team truly is top dog.